Out On the Table
by paigee.yovkoff
Summary: Part III: "Oh God, we're having the talk, aren't we?" she groaned, leaning forward and resting her forehead against his chest. "I believe your mother would be very proud," the ex-CIA agent laughed. - EST. Nellan. Set during 4x22 and also set after NaH and TMT. COMPLETE!
1. Part I

**Out On the Table.  
Words: **720**  
Couple: **Nell Jones and G Callen**  
TV Show: **NCIS: Los Angeles**  
Disclaimer: **All characters/quotes that you recognize belong to Shane Brennan, I just made it all feel Nalleny.**  
AU.  
Spoilers for Season 4 Episode 22 'Raven and Swans'  
Established Nell/Callen.**

…

_"Where's Nell?"  
"She had to run down to the armory."  
"For what?"  
"She didn't say."_

G Callen was three steps in front of his partner, knowing that Nell Jones being in the armory without him or Kensi generally meant she was checking to make sure their operations manager's dirty work wasn't spilling over the edges.

"G, slow down man," Sam murmured, his strides becoming longer so he could keep up with him, "Is something going on with you two? Honeymoon period over?"  
"The honeymoon period has been over for months Sam, we've been dating longer than you think."  
"What I mean, is there something _bad _going on here? You came in separately, she looks rattled."  
"I don't know Dr. Phil, you tell me," he smirked, shooting his partner a look before they entered the armory.

They stopped, watching her as she closed the draw Henrietta Lange was accustomed to using when hiding something, entering the code for the door to roll down. The intelligence analyst turned around, feigning shock to find them there.

"Watcha doing?" he asked, eyebrows raised as he looked past the act.  
"Just, uh, inventory."

His knowing smirk only grew, the insufferable and stubborn women in front of him was a terrible liar. She could lie if it saved her ass any other time, but she had faltered under the knowledge that they were going to find out any way.

"What's missing?" Sam questioned.  
"The Derringer and her arm-rig," she answered, knowing when she'd been defeated.

The partner's shared a look, one knowing that there was more, the other still confused as to _why_.

"_Plus_ her 32," when they reverted her gaze back to her, Nell sighed and gave in, "Three knives, pepper spray and a steel baton."  
"What, no hand grenade?" Sam answered, wondering when the list was going to end.

Callen frowned, looking back at his partner as he said he was going to check with Eric to try and find the mysterious women before leaving the armory. Wiping his hand down his face, he looked to her only to find her fidgeting uncomfortably. Between the two of them, they were tense, and he knew it was something that would come to interfere with their work. That was something he couldn't let happen.

"We're going to talk about this," he told her sincerely, meeting her eyes with his own, "Not right now, but we will."  
"You know why I didn't tell you G-"  
"Nell."  
"This isn't a conversation we can just leave hanging, you know it. We can say we're going to talk about it, and go back to work but it'll still be there, it'll stil be there making us treat each other differently."  
"Not now," he repeated.  
"When?"  
"When this is over."  
She shook her head, trying to hide a smile, "This case? Because another one will come up, and then it'll be prolonged, then we'll get home one night and it'll just blow up."  
"I promise, it won't."

When she looked back at him, he could have sworn he could hear a pin drop on the silence.

"We say that, but you and I both know it's a possibility," Nell whispered.  
Stepping towards her, he cupped her cheeks before pressing a lingering kiss to her forehead, "When this started, I promised that I was all in, and I am. I'm not going to let this blow up in our faces Nell," he assured her, tipping her chin up so she met his eyes again, "Right now, we can't talk about this. I'm still trying to process it myself, being honest."  
"I should have said something, huh?"  
"Maybe," he shrugged, "Won't be the last time this happens, for either of us."

The phone slipped into the back pocket of his jeans began ringing, pulling him away from her to answer it. Callen watched as she went back to fidgeting nervously, listening to Eric Beale update him.

"Hetty and our mystery women are in the boat shed," he told her, "I'll see you in ops, okay?"  
Nodding she stuffed her hands into the pockets, "This is all going to be okay, right?"

He knew exactly what she meant. Everything with Hetty, the team, _them_. It was all strained with everything that had been going on.

"Yeah," Callen assured her, "We always get past this."

…

_So let's set a timeline here. Okay.  
This is _after _'Not at Home' and 'Trusted My Training'. I guess this is the one that sort of rounds it all off, but after this I've got a plan for something that sort of follows this but I don't know._

_I know I've been really vague with what's going on, but everything else I wrote felt off, and eeeeer._

_One more thing. Let's just forget when he said "Not at the moment" I have a plan for that c:  
Which does involve writing some more, but if it gets me out of Graduate Program, I am 100% fine with it! Aha c:_

_This is where I promise that I'm working on the last part of 'Everything In Between' but my computer crashed just before I got to publish the chapter and it was like 3am and I hadn't gotten a chance to save it since I had begun writing it two hours earlier. So. That sucks. But it will be up soon!_

_Thank you!_

_All mistakes made are absolutely mine._

_Review?_


	2. Part II

**Out On the Table.  
Words: **597**  
Couple: **Nell Jones and G Callen**  
TV Show: **NCIS: Los Angeles**  
Disclaimer: **All characters/quotes that you recognize belong to Shane Brennan, I just made it all feel Nalleny.**  
AU.  
Spoilers for Season 4 Episode 22 'Raven and Swans'  
Established Nell/Callen.**

…

Her head fell back against the wall, she could hear the voices rising and almost wished she hadn't have left ops. Looking to her left she found Grace Stevens watching him as he walked away. That women was where this case started and ended, no matter how much Henrietta Lange had tried to make it seem otherwise, this women was the center of the case. Everything was revolving around her.

"Will you, or shall I?" the blonde women asked, moving to join her and breaking her away from her thoughts.  
"Leave him for a moment, he'll go down to the armory and put holes in a target, clean his gun, practice his Russian," Nell explained, sighing as she realized that she probably should go after him, "At least here he can't pull the toaster apart."  
"You two have a story, how does it fit in with this? With Hetty and NCIS?"  
"Uh, I'm not sure that I'm-"  
"Don't need to tell me anything Miss Jones," Grace smiled, "But whatever has you not following him, it'll pass."

Nell frowned, left to watch her make her way down the stairs and follow G Callen's footsteps. Clutching the files she held to her chest, she left her hiding spot to head towards Henrietta Lange. The air still filled with tension from her argument with Callen and making her rethink her decision to enter the small office.

"Yes Miss Jones?"  
"Recent progress report on the joint-op with FBI," she murmured, placing the file on her desk, "I should be getting details from the agent-in-charge about their plans for another raid by next week."  
"Thank you."

The tight smile she received from the older women made everything feel worse. The weight of the last year or so was still on everyone's shoulders and it was making the tension around the ops center thicker than ever.

"Everyone is telling me that things will be okay," Nell said slowly, meeting the older women's eyes as she looked up at her.  
"That they will, Miss Jones."  
"I just wanted to make sure you knew that."

When the tight smile was replaced with a genuine one the intelligence analyst took a seat.

"I take it Mr. Callen knows about your trip to the doctors."  
"It was a false positive."  
"Didn't take it too well?"  
Shaking her head Nell continued, "He's annoyed that I didn't tell him earlier, it's been a week of awkward passes on our way to work and strained conversations in ops."  
"In my experience, Miss Jones, he will always come around, but he's scared."  
"Is that what you hope, for what happened just then?"

Hetty shrugged, sitting back in her seat. The intelligence analyst sighed, standing up and tapping the file she'd placed on the desk earlier, before making her way back to the communications center. Massaging her neck and trying to roll the kinks out of it, Nell stopped at the doors when hearing her name called.

"Hm?" she questioned, turning around on the heel of her foot.  
Callen came to a stop in front of her, "I've got a plan, it may involve some persuasion out of Hetty though."  
"So you want something?"  
"Maybe, yeah, kind of."  
"You want me to talk to Hetty?"  
"I need you for moral support," he answered with a shake of his head, "She may not completely like my idea."  
"She won't kill you," the intelligence analyst assured him, "I'm first in line for that."

Nell watched the smile grow on his lips, and reminded herself that it was all going to be alright. Even them.

…

_I'm not too big on this one, but I guess it shines some light on the already-probably-super-predictable reason for their argument._

_I think I said this in the last author's not, but remember. We're forgetting the whole "Not at the moment" comment, I have plans for that and it strays completely from this c:_

_Thank you!_

_All mistakes are absolutely nothing but mine._

_Review?_


	3. Part III

**Out On the Table.  
Words: **877**  
Couple: **Nell Jones and G Callen**  
TV Show: **NCIS: Los Angeles**  
Disclaimer: **All characters/quotes that you recognize belong to Shane Brennan, I just made it all feel Nalleny.**  
AU.  
Spoilers for Season 4 Episode 22 'Raven and Swans'  
Established Nell/Callen.**

…

She heard the key slide into the lock before his muttered curse as he hit his knee on a still packed box by the door. In his lounge room the intelligence analyst sat on the ground – the couch still on it's way, or so she had been told three weeks ago by the distributor – expense reports scattered around her and making her head hurt from all of the numbers. From where she sat she could hear the sound of him shutting his government-issued weapon in the lock safe in the kitchen, and she almost smiled when his footsteps made the way towards her.

Nell could feel him sitting down behind her, his hands moving to her waist to pull her so that she was lying against him. Closing her eyes and taking in the radiating warmth from his body, she found herself fighting at just how tired she really was.

"I'm sorry," her voice was a whisper, "I really should have told you, as soon as I realized that it could have been a possibility."  
"I'm sorry I got angry," he replied, leaning down to press a kiss to her forehead.  
"I was scared, G. We've just gotten settled, I mean, we still haven't finished unpacking, and it just seemed like so much. I like where we are right now, I love it."  
The federal agent chuckled, "You and I both, Pixie."

With a small nod she opened her eyes, looking up to find him reaching over her for one of the reports that she had out in front of her. His eyes scanned over it and with a shake of his head he muttered something under his breath about it being docked from their pay.

"That's up to Hetty, and I don't think she'd do that to Kensi of all people."  
"She has, once," Callen smirked, "Kensi made me buy her doughnuts and coffee every day for almost six months until I paid her back at least half of what she owed."  
"It was probably your fault."  
"It was a mistake, I promise. But it proves that you should always read the prices when at up-scale clubs."  
"Mistake?" she snorted, sitting up and shuffling until she sat facing him, knees touching, "She was a Probie, wasn't she?"  
"Maybe."  
"You're an ass."

His laugh had her smiling, his eyes crinkling and making her forget for a moment that he didn't have bags under his eyes from the lack of sleep on top of stress from work.

"Was Agent Stevens assigned to a team here in LA?"  
"She's back on assignment," he answered, her nod reply enough for him to continue, "You know I love you, yeah?"  
"Yeah, I do."  
"Good," Callen smiled, "Because let's say, that sometime in the future, something like this happens again. Except it's not a false positive."  
"Oh God, we're having the talk, aren't we?" she groaned, leaning forward and resting her forehead against his chest.  
"I believe your mother would be _very _proud," the ex-CIA agent laughed.  
"She'd start planning the baby shower straight away if she ever found out we had this talk."

His shoulders lifted into a shrug as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her onto his lap.

"Would you be okay with it?"  
"Your mother planning a baby show, or…"  
"It being a real positive."

Nell lifted her head, noses brushing while her hands clasped behind his neck.

"Yeah, I would be," he nodded, his nose bumping hers again, "Because like I said, I'm all in. I'm 100% here."  
"Good," the intelligence analyst mirrored his earlier smile, "Because, hypothetically. Sometime in the future. Not tonight, not tomorrow, maybe a few months' times, I'm hoping you fulfil one of those promises you made."  
"Which one, I make a lot Nell."  
"The one where you said we'd get married and start a family, because, uh, that's something I'd like to do, uh, with _you_."  
"And one day I will."  
"Just not today," she clarified.  
"Not today," he chuckled.  
"Good."  
"Good."

Moving a hand run a finger under his eyes, Nell murmured under her breath about getting to sleep and that they wouldn't get away with sleeping in for the next few days, caseloads growing even bigger.

"Hm, we should," he agreed, pressing his cheek against her head as she dropped it to rest on his shoulder.  
"Too tired to move though."

His chuckle made her smile into his shoulder. His arms pulled her in closer as he lay back against the floor.

"Your back is gonna hurt in the morning."  
"Maybe," he shrugged.  
"Really should go to bed," Nell yawned.  
"Go to sleep Pixie."

As she woke the following morning to the first of many alarms she had set on her phone, her head resting on the pillow that was on his side of the bed, she could hear the sounds of him taking apart the toaster coming from the kitchen. Knowing that toast was most definitely not going to be an option for breakfast that morning she rolled back over and pulled the blankets over her head and tried to go back to sleep, giving up on her original hopes to get in before everyone else. Nell was perfectly fine where she was, she loved it.

…

_Ta-da!  
Record for me I say! Had this started directly after the episode ended, finished it before midnight on the Friday night. Then all three chapters posted on three consecutive(big word. Not sure if it's the right one though) days... Bit proud c:_

_Like I said in the previous two AN's in this story:  
The 'Not at the moment' comment will get its story soon.  
I've got plans for something that follows the three episode centered stories that will go completely AU after this one. May just be ten or so chapters of fluff, who knows. But there is an idea there. (And one of those will be Nell and Callen dressing up for Sam's daughter's birthday party. Why would I leave that hanging there?!)_

_I've also got plans for an Eric/OC story. Which I'm hoping will be a part of a major thing that I'll post when I've 'Told From Here' up to date – I'M WORKING ON THAT TOO._

_Besides all this._

_Thank you for reading (and putting up with the repetitive AN's)_

_All mistakes made are 100% _mine_._

_Review?_


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